HE MAY STILL BE safe. He is currently placed in a tie for 72nd but the likelihood is that Rory McIlroy’s two-over par score could yet be good enough to allow him make the cut at Sawgrass.
The tournament has been badly interrupted by rain with suggestions that it may not finish until Tuesday. It may end for McIlroy tomorrow but that depends how others cope with the wind and rain of Sawgrass.
Today McIlroy mixed brilliance with carelessness in his fight to avoid the cut.
Starting his second round on the tenth, McIlroy had a birdie at the par-5 on 16, narrowly missing an eagle chance. He then bogeyed 18 before getting five straight pars.
Then the drama started.
He chipped in from 21 yards at the sixth for birdie; then double bogeyed the seventh when his tee shot found the water. That left him two over for the tournament. But the response was positive. At the par 3 eighth he gave himself a chance with a tee shot that landed 16 feet from the hole. His birdie attempt went two feet past it. Par followed.
Onto the par-5 ninth – his final hole of the day – and his tee shot found the fairway. His second was also perfectly judged leaving him with a wedge to reach the green from 80 yards.
He did it without any trouble. With a chance for birdie from six feet, McIlroy’s putt looked good but it just missed the hole. It’ll be a long wait for him until tomorrow morning to find out if he will be back for the third round.
Seamus Power certainly will be.
Power had a one-under round of 71 in his first round and is currently three-under for the tournament thru 15.
He got off to a good start today, birdying the par-3 third with a 26-foot birdie putt that was superbly executed given that it started straight before finishing on a bit of a slope.
Three pars were followed by a bogey on seven but then Power found form on the inward nine, getting his second birdie of the day on the 11th – a par five – with a 12-footer that stayed straight.
With the wind picking up and temperatures dropping, Power continued to find form, hitting a wedge to six feet on the par-four 12th hole before he sank the uphill putt.
With pars on 13 and 14, he was tied for 14th position.
Shane Lowry is due to tee off just before midnight Irish time.
